'Owly' stars in animated short

An animated short featuring Owly, the star of Andy Runton's award-winning series of graphic novels, will premiere at the San Diego Comic-Con later this month.

It will feature Runton's innovative 'pictomation', a device in which the characters' thoughts and feelings are conveyed through expressive images rather than words. The short was developed by Sprite Animation Studios.

"I'm absolutely overjoyed to be working with the entire Sprite team," said Runton in a press release from Owly publishers Top Shelf Productions. "Over the past months, we've worked very closely to make sure Owly was faithfully translated to 3D. Every little detail was important to them, and the end result blows me away!

"They've created an animation that captures the pure essence of Owly in ways I never thought possible. It's amazing to see Owly and Wormy come to life like this. The level of artistry at Sprite is incredible."

Owly has won a series of awards including the 2006 Eisner Award for best publication for a younger audience. Runton won the 2005 Harvey Award for best new talent for his work on the series.

The short will be showing at the Top Shelf booth at the convention, which runs from July 23 to 26.